Echo Innovation without Disruption

The agnostic AI cloud computing platform fusing design, manufacturing and delivery

May 18, 2022

Echo Innovation without Disruption

Echo is the first platform-agnostic, cloud-based, AI, end-to-end technology to take made-to-order projects and products from a client’s design through manufacturing to delivery and installation.

For its inaugural mission, Echo is transforming the massive, notoriously technology-hesitant, building construction industry. Now architecture and construction professionals can use their standard industry software to leverage offsite prefab – the undisputed future of construction – saving thousands of hours and gaining pinpoint accuracy with prefab, without losing the ability to customize.

As a platform-agnostic cloud-native, Echo brings infinite computing power to all legacy software. Large projects are no longer broken into sections, which is the norm, to avoid crashing desktop-bound software. Echo collects and manages the project data: From early design development to virtual-reality client meetings inside the model, to pricing and pre-construction, custom modelling at the factory, manufacturing, shipping and on-site installation.

Until Echo came along, prefab platforms were programmed using manufacturers’ software rules and language for their catalogue of products. An architect’s or designer’s files could never go directly into production. Instead, someone working with the factory had to redo the design in the manufacturer’s software. This clunky, time-consuming and expensive method became next to impossible if a project required customized components. Echo makes prefab, even personalized prefab, painless.

Echo’s agnostic approach delivers collaboration without obstacles for the client too. While exploring and altering their design during a virtual-reality experience, precise pricing is produced in parallel, all while tethered to the architect’s original files, done in Revit®, for example.

When a custom component is required, Echo uses AI to assist the designer, providing feedback for configurations, exposing any errors and providing recommendations. Once the valid 3D model is produced, it’s delivered to the factory’s product development team in the software language they work in, ready for testing and production. No data transcribed. No time lost. No errors made.

For example, this large custom-designed bank lobby in a Washington DC heritage building (below) was engineered, manufactured, onsite, and constructed using Echo in just 28 days. As the client said: “If you can do this, you can do anything.”

Falkbuilt Completed Project Washington LobbyFalkbuilt Completed Project Washington LobbyFalkbuilt Completed Project Washington LobbyFalkbuilt Completed Project Washington LobbyFalkbuilt Completed Project Washington Lobby

Everyone on a project benefits from having Echo on their side.

Clients
Design Team
General Contractor
Manufacturer

As proof of its transformative power, Falkbuilt, a digital prefab component manufacturer, and its global Factory Direct Branches outperformed all expectations, thanks in large part to employing Echo as the company’s technology platform for every aspect of the business.

In just a few months, Falkbuilt raced from startup to producing large and small projects for clients worldwide, from healthcare to corporate to education. Despite getting underway just as a pandemic swept the planet, the company and its Branches recently delivered their 1000th project. Meanwhile, Echo is just getting started.


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